She won a silver medal at the Olympics and is the British No 2 tennis player, but Laura Robson still receives pocket money from her parents, she admitted today.
She also told how she has to turn down nights out with friends because she needs to go to bed.
Asked at the Australian Open if she had full access to her earnings, Robson, who turns 19 next week, said: “No, absolutely not. My dad’s not stupid. That’s off-limits completely. I’m given an allowance. And at the end of the year my dad was nice enough to give me a bonus, which I spent almost straight away on clothes. I bought a really nice coat.”
Robson, from Wimbledon, is normally accompanied by mother Kathy as she travels the globe while father Andrew takes care of her business arrangements.
She told how her career affects her social life, saying: “All my friends from school are at uni now. It’s funny because in the few weeks I’ve been at home, my friends think I can automatically go out for dinner every evening and I can watch a movie at 10 o’clock at night. I keep saying to them, ‘By seven o’clock I’m exhausted, so it’s not going to happen.’”
She said that on tour she longs for home comforts, like playing with her labrador Ella, and is trying to persuade her parents to get her a new puppy.
At Melbourne today, Robson beat Melanie Oudin in straight sets and now faces the 2011 Wimbledon champion, Petra Kvitova. Fellow Britons Heather Watson and Andy Murray are also safely through to the second round, but Jamie Baker went out.
